Practice variability with syringe labelling practices among anaesthesia residents

Abstract

Practice variability among healthcare providers can increase the risk of human error and is associated with adverse events [1]. For example, it has been demonstrated that different colour-coding schemes for syringe labels between institutions once contributed to increased risk of morbidity and mortality with drug administration [2]. Therefore, to decrease that variability, standardized colourcoding of syringe labels was introduced in the USA in 1994, in Australia and New Zealand in 1996, in Canada in 1999, and in the UK in 2003. Since then, evidence-based studies have demonstrated that standardized colour-coding of syringe labels results in a decreased incidence of drug swap errors [4,5]. Nevertheless, drug administration errors continue to be reported and have not been eliminated. One possible contributor to the continued observation of drug errors may be related to practice variability with other aspects of the drug label, such as location, orientation, written details, and legibility. We, therefore, sought to describe the practice variability with drug labels among a cohort of anaesthesia residents in an academic medical centre.